Biggest Russian retailer, X5, grows 41%

X5 Retail Group, Russia’s largest retail holding, witnessed a 41% increase in sales in the second semester of 2011, owing to an increase in Russian consumer demand and the takeover of food discounter Kopeyka. 

2.8 billion euro sales

X5’s sales grew from 79.8 billion ruble to 112 billion (2 to 2.8 billion euro), but CEO Andrei Gusev was not totally satisfied as the growth was slower than in the first quarter – and is expected to be slower still in the third. X5 Retail Group expects the growth to rise again in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Beating Wal-Mart in the chase

Part of the huge growth also comes from the integration of Kopeyka in X5, after the Russians outmanoeuvred American giant Wal-Mart to buy the food discounter for 35 billion ruble (880 million euro). Wal-Mart had been looking for an entry in the Russian market for some time and not acquiring Kopeyka was a setback for the world’s number one retailer, who is still expected to enter the Russian market through a merger or a takeover within the next three years. 

Almost 3400 stores

The rapidly growing X5 group was formed in 2006 by a merger of soft discounter Pyaterochka and supermarket chain Perekrestok and was expanded in 2008 with hypermarkets Karusel and again in 2010 with Kopeyka. Currently, the group has 2263 soft Pyaterochka soft discount stores, 647 former Kopeyka stores, 307 Perekrestok supermarkets, 82 convenience stors, 68 Karusel hypermarkets, 19 Paterson supermarkets and 2 Pyaterochka Maxis. The 3388 stores received over 1.2 billion European Russians and Ukranians during 2010.